About Us

Vice President, Head of NTT Human Informatics Laboratories
Kota Hidaka, Ph.D.

The COVID-19 pandemic completely transformed our lives over a period of about three years. We were remainded once again that going out to meet someone is not something that we can take for granted. Amid restrictions on non-essential activities, we also came to learn that feeling happy is not always a burning necessity.

At NTT Human Informatics Laboratories, our mission is to "research and develop technologies that foster true humanity" while our vision is to "enable the information-and-communication processing of diverse human functions based on the human-centric principle."

The environment around us is rapidly changing. At the beginning of the Reiwa era in Japan in 2019, I could not imagine what it would be like five years later. The English name for our campany, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, includes the prefix "tele-" having the meaning of "far off." In this sense, we have become a company that provides communication beyond distance. Over these last few years, we have also contributed to the expansion and advancement of the remote world using ICT. While we are still in a period of dramatic change, now is the time to check and see what these last few years have produced and to determine the essence of what should be left for future generations from a human-centric viewpoint.

When you cannot meet with your loved ones in persion, is there a form of communication that transends the barriers of time and distance? To what extent is it OK for machines to imitate people? Moreover, is there an area in which machines should be allowed to exceed the capabilities of humans? In what ways should technology help people to experience convenience and happiness? I keep asking myself these questions in collaboration which outside parties. We are concentrating our resources on proven technologies that we sincerely hope to leave for future generations even 100 years from now.

Please look forward to our future achievements at NTT Human Informatics Laboratories.